Well Done Jack!

Congratulations to Jack Coombes, famous for his polytunnel and his prize-winning vegetables – he has done it again.  Jack took first prize at the National Vegetable Society Show at St Fagans – see photo below.

Kings Seeds Catalogue 2018-19

The 2018-19 Kings Seeds catalogue is now available – click on the links below. If you have not ordered seeds before then please browse the catalogue as our National Allotment Society membership means that we benefit from a 40% discount on Kings retail prices.  Good value and good quality seeds.

Please complete your order form and let me have your payment – cash or cheque (payable to Dynevor Gardening Association) – by the end of October. Any queries or problems accessing the catalogue please let me know.

Lesley

Veg A-G

Veg H-P

Veg R-Z

Soft Fruit & Trees

Flowers A-M

Flowers N-Z

Sundries and Books

Suffolk Herbs – organic range

Order Form

 

A Successful Pentyrch Show

The Pentyrch Show last weekend was one of the most successful yet – plenty of entries, lots of visitors and good competition in all classes.  Some success for allotment members – Jack and Ken did not monopolise the prizes but managed a couple of Firsts with their famous veg.  Prizes also went to Martin Cragg, Peter Rees, Andy Rees, Pauline Rees, Sue Cragg, Nia Honeybun, Alison Appleby, Gill Roberts and Lesley Sherwood.  If you missed out then make a diary note for next year and enter a few veg.

Top Tasks for September

September 1^st and it’s Pentyrch Show so take some time off from the allotment and garden and visit the Show.  You will still have the rest of the month to carry out the seasonal jobs; here are a few suggestions –

If you grow summer raspberries, now is the time to prune out all the fruited canes, cutting down to the base, and then tie in new canes

There are quite a lot of pumpkins and squashes on the plot, so help them ripen in the sun by cutting away any leaves that are covering the fruits

Apples and pears should be ripe enough to pick now, so pick them before they fall so that you can store them; fallers can be used for cooking

Trusses of unripe outdoor tomatoes can be cut off the plant and ripened indoors, or alternatively used for green tomato chutney – yummy!

Stay vigilant for pests and diseases in the greenhouse, and treat any you find immediately – I have had a real problem with red spider mite this year, so plan to clean everything out and them use a fumigating smoke to (hopefully) resolve the problem – any other suggestions welcome.

If your lawn suffered from the hot dry weather, it is a good time to rake the thatch from any bare spots, aerate by spiking with a garden fork, and re-seed

I now it’s pretty sad, but I get excited when the leaves start to fall – I love raking them up, shredding and storing in bags to make leaf mould; I leave them to decompose for two years, so you need some space for storage, but over time the original 10 bags or so compost down to just two or three

Taking cuttings from favourite plants so that you have a ‘spare’ in case of a hard winter

And finally it’s seed time – the Kings catalogue has arrived and it will be posted on the webpage in the next week or so. This is one of the benefits of your National Allotment Society membership, catalogue prices are discounted by 40% on retail – orders need to be placed by the end of October.